Blood 'n' Thunder, Winter 2012

This special book-length (234 pages) issue is our most ambitious yet. The main feature is a 22,000-word essay on Zane Grey and his involvement with Hollywood, illustrated with more than 60 rare photos. Other articles cover Tom Mix's silent-movie adaptations of Max Brand novels, the evolution of Western fiction in pulp magazines, the making of Republic's 1938 cliffhanger serial featuring the Lone Ranger, an overview of the Doubleday-published pulp titled WEST, and a behind-the-scenes report on the discovery and marketing of Roy Rogers. Finally -- and this last item would be worth the price alone -- we reprint a classic 1919 Western novella by Stewart Edward White, THE KILLER, which has been out of print for decades and was the inspiration for the 1932 George O'Brien Western titled MYSTERY RANCH. At 36,000 words, this thrilling yarn deserves publication as a standalone book, but we've included it as bonus material! There are nearly 100 movie photos reproduced in this issue, and nearly as many pulp covers and original pieces of art by such well-known Western illustrators as Walter M. Baumhofer, Tom Lovell, and Gayle Hoskins, to name just a few.